It’s no secret that Rock Band hardware has experienced its fair share of failures, and while the kick pedal has caused the lion’s share of grief on the drums, we’re pretty sure at least some of you out there have thoroughly ruined those heads. If so, the similarly bummed folks over at Official Xbox Magazine have a possible solution. We’ll be honest — the “fix” described in the read link below isn’t for the faint of heart, but if you’re too impatient to take your problems up with Harmonix, find the smallest screwdriver you can and have at it.

[Via MAKE]

There’s certainly been no shortage of sad stories involving Xboxes, but when it comes to attempts to get the console repaired, this latest tale from a gamer known only as Nathaniel might have to take the cake. As you can see above, his console (one of the first to hit the market) boasted a good deal of personalization, including signatures from folks at Bungie and the Xbox 360 team, and a spiffy illustration by Rooster Teeth Comics artist Luke McKay. As with many other Xbox users, however, Nathaniel’s console eventually packed it in, and he was forced to send it to Microsoft for repairs. Needless to say, that’s when things took a turn for the worse. Despite calling ahead of time and getting assurances that his prized console would be sent back intact, and including a letter reiterating how much the console meant to him, Microsoft apparently took it upon themselves to clean it as best they could before returning it, leaving only a few faint smudges of permanent marker to ensure that it was, in fact, the same Xbox. There’s no word as to what Nathaniel plans to do next (other than weep), but given that Microsoft gave the royal treatment to someone that did nothing more than get a Zune tattoo, you’d think they could at least give the guy a few free points or something.

Sony, we know you’re trying hard, which is why we think it must sting all the worse when you wake up to sales figures like this. According to a report, the Wii outsold PS3s in Japan 4-to-1 in the month of February, and its games dominated bestseller lists. What does that look like in cold, hard numbers? Nintendo moved 331,627 consoles over the month, while Sony only managed 89,131 units in the same time. But wait, there’s more: in January, the ratio was 3-to-1, which means that Nintendo’s lead seems to be growing as the year moves forward. Still, Sony could have it worse, the Xbox 360 only scraped up a paltry 14,079 Xbox 360 sales in that same span of time.

When asked whether or not he viewed the upcoming PSP phone as a threat to the N-Gage, Nokia games head honcho Jaakko Kaidesoja responded thusly:

“I’m not scared about anybody. The real question is how do they [Sony Ericsson] do it? Can they create a link between the PSP games and a phone? Can they do the multiplayer and online stuff? We’ve been doing this for two years and it hasn’t been easy.”

Is that the real question—or is it whether or not Nokia can do anything right and finally get a gaming platform off the ground? [Pocket Gamer]

This one has been in the works for a while, but it looks like you can finally pick up your very own region-free enabler for the Wii for $19.99. Wii FreeLoader allows you to play any GameCube or Wii game from any region on your Wii. You just stick the FreeLoader disc into the console, let it spin up, eject the disc and stick in your title of choice — like Super Smash Bros. Brawl, for instance, or some cooking-related title. Since there’s no hardware modding required, this one theoretically won’t void your warranty, but who’s to say how Nintendo will treat you if you somehow break your Wii with it, and there’s always the fear that Nintendo will hit your Wii with a mandatory software update that breaks FreeLoader, so proceed with caution. Or don’t, so much confusing entertainment awaits you!

[Via Wii News]

The first game for Microsoft’s Surface table has been demonstrated in an exclusive peek by SarcasticGamer.com, and all I can say is, it combines the spine-tingling excitement of a mobile-phone puzzle game with the spine-achiness that comes from hunching over the screen to play.

The game is called Firefly, though the good ship Serenity is nowhere in sight. Instead, you grab fireflies as they flit around the screen, pulling them into your glass jar. The graphics are beautiful, and the interface looks very organic, so we have no doubt Surface will eventually lead to some sweet gaming. But this appears to take the “anyone can play” theme a little too far, to the nursery-schoolish “anyone can win.”

As Doc from SarcasticGamer says, “Anyone can herd fireflies.” True, but most people would probably choose not to. [SarcasticGamer.com]

Oh boy, if ever there was a worthy use case for a giant $10k multi-touch table, it’s a serene port of Hungry Hungry Hippos called Firefly, which Microsoft developed as a proof of concept for Surface. Just gather them into your jar. Go on, gather ‘em up, those 100,000 fireflies aren’t going to gather themselves. Video after the break.

Korea is first port of call (well, it would be, wouldn’t it?) for these 3D-ready plasmas from Samsung. Available in two sizes: 42; and 50 inches, the PAVV Cannes 450 has a 30,000:1 ratio and 3D content support,, and will work with high-performance PC-supporting 3D software and 3D glasses. And there’s even a super-expensive, HD version, the Cannes 550. More info, plus another shot, below.

The Cannes 450 has Cell Light Control, 2008 Daylight technology and a DNIe+ chipset, as well as enhanced low-sound performance and three entertainment modes: sports; movie; and games.

Samsung also announced a tie-up with Electronic Arts. The gaming software giant is going to provide the content for 3D-Ready PDP TV. Prices are the South Korean Won equivalent of $1,850 for the 42-incher, and $2,656 for the 50-incher. Meanwhile, the HD version, the Cannes 550, will cost $4,145. [Samsung and Aving]

Price fixing isn’t ever fun — unless you’re the company doing it and expect to get away with it, and then it’s like a total blast, dude. But hopefully that isn’t actually the case with Sharp and Hitachi, whose offices were apparently raided by the Japanese Fair Trade Commission on suspicion of fixing display prices for the DS; Nintendo’s throw its hands up in the air exclaiming that it was unaware of the supposed screen cartel, and something else about just when they think were out, they got pulled back in.

Last week at GDC, Sony’s showed how the standard PlayStation Eye camera connected to a standard PS3 does well at tracking face and body movement, even at some distance. As you can see in the above video starring my good friend Stephen Totilo, it works great, and would be brilliant for duck-and-cover maneuvering in first-person shooters. However, as you might guess, support for games has yet to be announced. I’ve got my fingers crossed for Dodgeball: The Movie: The Game, complete with 3D wrenches. [MTV Multiplayer]